Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: finland

Karalahti is one of 19 suspects in a widespread case of alleged smuggling and distribution of amphetamines in Finland, officials said. He will face trial in the Vantaa prison court near Helsinki on Jan. 29, the Espoo Regional Court said without announcing the exact charges.

Local media have reported that the 32-year-old Karalahti was linked to a drug smuggling network that imported and distributed drugs in Finland in July. Karalahti was taken off the ice for police questioning during a practice session last month with his Karpat team.

Karalahti left the NHL before the beginning of the 2002-03 season after being suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

European federations have no problem losing their best young players to the NHL; they’ve grown to accept that as a fact of life. But what they’re finally fed up with is losing top young players and seeing them play in the American Leauge. This season, for example, 64 European players signed their first NHL contracts, but only seven of them are playing in the NHL.

That’s why the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation recently reported it is likely going to pull out of the IIHF’s agreement with the NHL and the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation will probably follow suit. Under the terms of the four-year agreement reached last spring, individual European federations have the right to terminate their portions of the agreement prior to Dec. 31 of this year.

Should the Swedes and Finns pull out of the agreement, it will leave it in shambles. The Russian federation has already opted out of the deal and losing two more federations would make it worthless.